For The Business Leader

How can Strategic Business Masters help you, the business leader?

Finding the focus for improvement depends on how you answer certain basic questions:

If the answer to this question is YES, then ask yourself this: Is the plan being fulfilled? If it’s not, Strategic Business Masters will find out why and guide you through improved implementation

If the answer to this question is NO, then consider this: In reality, everyone has a plan, even if it is as simple as “I will do what I did yesterday”. If your plan is not concrete, not clearly stated, not sufficient or otherwise unsatisfactory, Strategic Business Masters will use appropriate methods to help form the plan in a clear and appropriate way. Not every one needs the proverbial 30 page business plan - most don’t. “KISS” is usually the right answer for business planning.

Is the plan articulated?

Is the plan actually written down in one place in a manner that it can be communicated internally and externally?

If the answer to this questions is YES, then good, keep it up!

If the answer to this question is NO, then Strategic Business Masters will help shape the plan into one that can be communicated to the appropriate persons:

Take those multiple “plans” and align them so they become one
Reduce the plan to its focused elements
Make the plan memorable
Make the plan understandable
Make the plan doable

As a business lawyer of over 20 Years, I saw problems with articulation everyday. A business contract, at its core, is supposed to articulate the business deal between the parties - it is a plan for a business relationship. How many times have you read a contract and at the end had no idea what the business relationship was?

Is the plan communicated?

Having a plan and being able to articulate it is a great start. Communicating the plan, gives the plan its real power to start improving outcomes.

If the answer to this question is YES, then good, keep it up!

If the answer to this questions is NO, then Strategic Business Masters will guide that communication by:

Developing the appropriate communications plan
Obtaining buy-in
Creating implementation schedules
Targeting the appropriate audience
Assuring communications are effective

Note: Not every part of the plan needs to be communicated to the whole world, but everybody needs to know some portion of the plan.

One of the smartest industrial engineers I have ever met had an insight that applies to communication plans. She said that nothing can become a habit unless it is practiced for three weeks. If you want the plan to break through the daily clutter of things needed to be done, the plan needs to be communicated to the right people, consistently and habitually.

Is the plan tested?

Testing is where it gets really complicated and it is where most plans break down. There is a decision tree here too, I just don’t want to lose you in fine print. Some of the basic questions are:

Does the plan state objectives that are measurable?
Does each part of the business that is involved in the plan's success have an objective?
Does each objective have a scoring system?
Is the scoring periodic?
Is the scoring communicated?
Is the scoring understood?
Has there been buy-in by all of the parties?
How is failure to meet an objective treated?
How is success in meeting an objective treated and reinforced?
What is the tracking system?
How is the plan amended?

In their work on implementing strategy, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton note that between 70 and 90 percent of organizations fail to meet their announced strategic goals. (The Strategy-Focused Organization, Harvard Business School Press, 2001.) The Key problem identified is not setting an incorrect strategy; the key problem is a failure to effectively carry out the strategy chosen. This is true even in large companies that spend a fortune on developing and writing strategic plans, communicating the plan and even launching publicity campaigns about it.